Yeah, it’s been a few weeks since last I updated this journal.  I figured I’d talk a little about what’s been going on lately, cause it’s been an interesting few weeks.  Let me summarize:

* First of all, it’s been a trippy set of weeks over at Hearts of Space.  If you like experimental or ambient music, you really need to check out this week’s program: www.hos.com .

* A few weekends ago I went camping with friends.  It was called “Camp Nerdly” by us, and we had a blast. Basically a bunch of friends and aquaintences that are into gaming met up in Virginia for some coooold, cold camping, some awesome fun and quite a bit of RPG-gaming. It was totally geeky, but all the people who went were the “cool types” (like, people that you could see yourself doing things with that aren’t just gaming), and not, like, the normal semi-autistic Magnageek types you would run into at a convention or whatnot.

* Right after that, I got totally ill. Out of control illness, actually. I don’t really remember much of that week, save that I didn’t really watch any TV, I didn’t play any games, I didn’t read any books… I stayed at home, took a whole week off of work, and suffered. Luckily I got to hang out with friends here and there (Thursday night) so that brought me out of my shell.

* The sickness was weird. It was basically a huge sore throat, out of control. Couldn’t swallow. The weird thing was that there was white blood cells and pustules, and NO FEVER. The doctor did two instant strep tests but both were negative, even though it totally looked like strep. Then, over the course of two days, all my symptoms changed but still no fever.  And between the utter pain of swallowing (I was given some topical to gargle, it didn’t help much) and yet constant drainage, I basically stayed up 20-22 hours a day for like three or four days, and only got to sleep when my body was simply too exhausted to go on… Then I would wake up 2-4 hours later in a choking fit.

* Luckily, the pain is over, I can barely even remember it anymore. The final diagnosis was a Virus, which came through the third time I went back to the doctor’s: It had juuuuuuust begun to clear up, and the doctor noticed that the pain was caused by ulcers on my uvula that ran down the back of my throat. Nothing really to do other than gargle more topical analgesic and wait. But shortly afterwards, the ulcers went away and I was more or less “better”.

* Last week, I went back to work; still feeling the effects, I still wanted to make up for that week I was out.  So I kinda ran myself pretty hard. One more valiant push.  Funny thing is, today, about 3 days after my throat had been stable and right when I was thinking of getting back into running outside and aerobics, I start getting a regular old cold. Coughing, phlegm, etc. Well, some “Tussin” should clear that right up soon hopefully. It sucks, but honestly, a Regular Cold is friggin welcome in my body, now that that bizarre viral thing is out.

* Last week my dad made steaks. It was delicious. Never been too into meat ever, really, and spent 7 years as a hardcore vegetarian; but man the marinade my dad uses, plus his elite cooking skills (he’s been taking a lot of cooking classes lately) has really made a block of nasty moo-muscle into something delicious.

* As some of you may know, I volunteered to help out at the office by working Wed-Sat for long enough to get some new guys trained and up to speed. I was asked to work a little longer, and I did. Right up to the point that I started to burn out again. Luckily, though, that ended last Saturday. Yep, today (Tuesday) was a weekend, and tomorrow I begin my regular Mon-Fri 8-5 shift. With glee.  I love the idea of working 4 days and having 3 off… but the reality is that I end up squandering those days unless I have something planned and ready to roll in detail.

* Orie’s doing well. Again, for those not in the know, she went back to Japan for 6 weeks in October, and gets back November 15th or so. She was there to get things in motion to ensure that Grandma is taken care of because her slacker family keeps forgetting. Also, she is helping around the house and all as our sister-in-law just had a second baby and now no one is around who can help clean up, make food, etc. Finally, she’s meeting friends, going to a wedding, and doing some travelling. Last year when she went, when she came back she felt nostalgic about Japan, and kinda started thinking about heading back at some point (I started thinking about it, too).  But this time, hoo-boy, she’s totally missing America and her life over here now. She wants to come back soon and get back to freelancing, starting a full-time job, and getting more involved with the community here in the Triangle (namely the pottery groups and the like).  Very interesting change of thought, but she realized that aside from the food and culture, a few friends and her Grandmother, she’s now got More To Live For in the US than Japan.

* Also, she’s buying me lots of crazy Japanese snack foods, manga, and some games I asked about. Can’t wait to see them.

* I’m still limping along with the Getting Things Done system.  I’ve started finding new tools that I can implement that basically turn my notebook into a full on analog PDA, complete with project menus and the like. We’ll see how it works out. I’m thinking that, because of my wanting to dedicate efforts to projects on different days, that I’ll still have to keep trying at a Frankensteinian mesh of GTD and Franklin-Covey.

* Oh, so Orie is gone and I’m half-and-half digging being a bachelor. More on that later. Sure, there’s some loneliness at times, but I can say, “Tonight, for dinner I will have a Chik-Fil-A sandwich and Sushi!”, and it will be so. In fact, I’ve made a list of restaurants that I want to hit while I can. Not that I can’t when Orie gets back, it’s just that two people costs a lot more, and it’s also a good chance to go to restaurants that Orie wouldn’t otherwise like. Oh, today for lunch I had Fried Octopus balls, I went to Biscuitville for a Fried Chicken Club biscuit, and then went to Hereghty’s in Raleigh to sit at that cafe with a glorious Mighty Tea (Orange black) and eat a specialty torte, a “Zurich”. Cause that’s how I roll.

* What else… Um, watching some (very few) anime, but watching a lot of Japanese Dramas, caught up on House MD and Battlestar, that’s about all the TV I watch. Saw The Departed and The Prestiege, both great, but I think Mark Wohlberg’s character in The Departed was the one that made the most impact out of both movies.

* Been writing some, translating some. Tenra is kind of on hold for two weeks until Orie gets back, as there’s parts we need to tag-team to save time (not all of the translation assignments doled out in the summer panned out, so now I’ve got to rush some myself. No big, but it may push the next steps of the project back a few weeks). I still have to ready two Tenra scenarios for an upcoming convention, and at the same time post more on the Tenra dev blog, cause I started a really cool post about 4 weeks ago that I haven’t followed up on yet.
* Been hanging out on story-games. I’m loving it, and when my head is a little clearer I’m going to think of ways to encourage more general discussion. I’m seeing a lot of very specific, sometimes dry threads, which is cool, but I want the Fun, the Awesome, to be there too. We’ll see.

* Taking care of the cats hardcore while Orie is away.  One thing I dig about fall turning into Winter, is that the cats naturally want to snuggle up next to me because it’s warm.  It’s like getting punched in the face with cuteness every night.

Anyway, I’m going to talk more on specific things I brought up above later. I just wanted to get back into the swing of things, as it were.

-Andy